Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 46.djvu/28

 own opinion that Mahî is a name of the goddess Dhishanâ, does not seem to me to be established by sufficient reasons.—On the meaning of these three goddesses Prof. Max Müller writes: 'I should not fix on Nourishment as the true meaning of Ilâ. Originally those three goddesses seem to be local: Ilâ, the land or daughter of Manu, the Sarasvatî, and another river here called Mahî.'

Verse 11.

Note 1. To me it seems evident that the tree, or, to translate more literally, the lord of the forest (vanaspati) invoked in this Âprî verse can only be the sacrificial post (yûpa) to which the victim was tied before it was killed. The yûpa is called vanaspati in the Rig-veda (III, 8, t. 3. 6. ii) as well as in the more modern Vedic texts (for inst., Taitt. Samh. I, 3, 6, 1).—In the Âprî hymn, IX, 5 (verse 10), the vanaspati is called sahasravalsa: with this should be compared III, 8, 11 (addressed to the yûpa): vánaspate satávalsah ví roha sahásravalsâh ví vayám ruhema, 'O lord of the forest, rise with a hundred offshoots; may we rise with a thousand offshoots!'—In the Âprî hymn, X, 70 (verse 10), the rope (rasanâ) is mentioned by which the vanaspati should tie the victim; comp. with this expression the statements of the ritual texts as to the rasanâ with which the victim is tied to the yûpa; Schwab, Das Altindische Thieropfer, 8r. Comp. also especially Taittirîya Brâhmana III, 6, 11, 3.—In the Âprî hymns the vanaspati is frequently invoked to let loose the victim; in connection therewith mention is made of the sacrificial butcher (samitri), see II, 3, 10; III, 4, 10; X, 110, 10, and comp. Vâg. Samhitâ XXI, 21; XXVIII, 10. The meaning of these expressions becomes clear at once, if we explain the vanaspati as the sacrificial post. When they are going to kill the victim, they loosen it from the post; the post, therefore, can be said to let it loose. Then the butcher (samitri) leads the victim away. See the materials collected by Schwab, Thieropfer, p. 100 seq., and comp. also H. O., Religion des Veda, 257.